J 17,1-11a

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty 

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation:  Jesus is staying with disciples around Jerusalem. After a long teaching, Jesus begins to pray to God the Father. Listen to this prayer, be present in this scene.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the desire to know God

1. … this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Jesus explains that eternal life consists in knowing God and Jesus Christ. It is exploring the mystery that we will fully know after death. In life, we meet another person, when we are curious about him, when we enter into a close relationship in which we accept others and we feel accepted, liked, loved. The curiosity of the other person helps to accept his otherness, helps to understand him, allow him for his autonomy. The same happens, when someone wants to know us and accept us with everything we have: with what is our resource and what is our weakness. It depends on us how much we let others meet us. It is a little different in relation to God, because we are still in process of knowing him, but he already knows each of us, knows everything about us and loves us. What is your curiosity about God, another man? How do you feel in your relationship with God knowing that he knows you and loves you so much? What is your way to know God and another person? What is your openness so that others can know you (maybe something is blocking you from openness, name it)? And finally, a very important question, from which you may want to start the topic of knowing: what is your curiosity about yourself?

2. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus glorified his Father by doing what the Father gave him. As if we were to refer this sentence to ourselves, we can say that we show glory to God by doing what he gives us. What does he give?

He gives us our life, which consists of our duties, our everyday life, relationships with other people. How we experience our everyday lives depends on us. Will we look for what is life-giving or will we revolve around our wounds, harms, fears? It is not about denying what is difficult, and it doesn’t about looking for threats and being stuck in your suffering. It receives openness, creativity, cuteness, curiosity, deprives us of life-giving strength. And God wants our happiness.

We give praise to God also by thanking him for what we have received. Look at your day and see what goods you got from God today. He comes in simple things, such as the fact that you can breathe, in the smile of another person, in blooming flowers …

3. I am not asking on behalf of the word, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.

The whole fragment of the mediated pericope is the prayer of Jesus. In this prayer Jesus intercedes for his disciples: I am asking in their behalf; Jesus also prays for you. Read this sentence by inserting your name: I am asking in (put your name here) behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the word, but on behalf of (put your name here) whom you gave me.

What do you feel, what this prayer of Jesus awakens in you?

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)